I thought a recent editorial in the Nation labeled A Very Modest Proposal was particularly smart on President Obamas new carbon reduction regulations (via the EPA). The editors paint a striking picture of a president negotiating with himself and leading from behind. I usually post Paul Krugmans column, but his one yesterday on Obama was so cheery on this recent global warming initiative and other aspects of his domestic policy that I held off, wanting something to put it with. Im posting it with the Nation editorial whose perspective makes so much more sense to me. Heres just part of what the Nation wrote. Tom Questions of compliance aside, is the regulation aggressive enough to meaningfully mitigate the climate crisis? The answer is a resounding no. The key problem is that 2005 was close to the peak year of US carbon pollution, which has declined notably since 2007 without any federal regulation, thanks to the recession and to the growth in renewable energy. In fact, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, the country is already halfway to Obama’s proposed 30 percent cut, which is far from the target that climate scientists say we must hit to avoid global catastrophe. Cutting carbon emissions from 2005 levels is like making a plan to reduce your caloric intake but using Thanksgiving Day as the baseline. The order represents a vintage case of Obama negotiating with himself. He is undertaking an executive action, which requires no consent from Congress or industry groups. Severe pushback is inevitable from both—in his first statement on the proposed rule, House Speaker John Boehner dubbed it “nuts”—so why not propose a solution that fits the scale of the problem? This year the European Commission embraced a 40 percent cut by 2030 based on 1990 levels. Even that was criticized as too modest; the head of Greenpeace UK called for a 55 percent cut. “If our policy debates were guided by science and evidence, rather than Big Money and partisan positioning, the noisy criticism of the EPA rule would come not from those bemoaning a tyrannical mandate, but those demanding much more aggressive action,” says Public Citizen president Robert Weissman. Heres Krugman on the same subject: Then there’s climate policy. The Obama administration’s new rules on power plants won’t be enough in themselves to save the planet, but they’re a real start — and are by far the most important environmental initiative since the Clean Air Act. I’d add that this is an issue on which Mr. Obama is showing some real passion. thenation/article/180128/obamas-climate-regulations-step-right-direction-nowhere-close-what-we-need# Heres Krugman: nytimes/2014/06/16/opinion/paul-krugman-health-care-and-climate-president-obamas-big-deals.html
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:42:20 +0000
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